Thunderstorms
by sdbubbles
Summary: Away at a conference, Jac has to share a room with Serena in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm.


**A/N: Hello! This is just a little one-shot inspired by the awful thunderstorms here :)**

**Sarah x**

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"Shut the curtains," Jac whimpered. She couldn't help it. She _hated_ thunderstorms. She heard Serena shuffle in her bed, probably to squint through the darkness to see if Jac was serious and obviously wondering why she had agreed to share a room on this trip. "Please."

The lightning flashed through the dark and Jac saw Serena's silhouette for a split second getting out of her bed. Her inevitable sigh was drowned out by a deafening crash of thunder. She drew the curtains but it did little good; they were too transparent too block the frequent flashes out, and the rumbling of thunder and pounding of rained was not dying down at all.

This was why she hated British weather. She hated the volatility of it and the way it could be sunny one minute and like this the next.

"What is it with you and thunder and lightning?" Serena asked quietly, getting back into bed.

_She pounded on the door. "Mum!" she shouted. "Mum, it's raining!" A wave of fear crashed over her when the sky flashed. "Mum, it's thunder and lightning! Let me in!" There was a deep rumbling that seemed to trap her, and she hit her fists off the door with more urgency but received no acknowledgement. "Granddad?!" she shouted __desperately__, but she knew he wasn't there._

_She banged on the door once more, tears mixing with rain on her face, before finally giving up. She knew her mother would not come._

_ She stumbled through the rain back to the tent haphazardly stood in the back garden, wind blowing through it, howling like a wolf. She picked up her teddy bear and crawled into the pink sleeping bag, pulling the top over her head as if it would shield her from the unstoppable electricity being released from the night sky._

_ Her wet red hair stuck to her face and her clothes to her body as she shivered in the sleeping bag. She was freezing. She didn't dare step out of the tent again; the weather turned too quickly and it might have been even worse out there by now. When her mum had set this up the weather had been fine. It was meant to be a little adventure, sleeping in a tent in the back garden, but it was quickly turning into a nightmare._

_ She screamed when the ground shook, but the rumbling as the lightning struck the ground was louder than any noise she could have made. The thunder crashed and she hid further down into the sleeping bag, willing for it to end._

_She closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep. She was half-conscious when there was an almighty crack and something fell, grazing the front of the tent as it did so._

_ She scrambled to her feet, trembling, and cautiously went to the door of the tent. With shaking hands she moved the zips only a few inches, just enough to pull it with her hand and peek outside. On the ground was a tree. Well, what was left of a tree. It looked like it had been split down the middle._

_ She quickly secured the tent again and dived back into the sleeping bag, wishing her mum would come and get her, or even just unlock the door, but she knew neither would happen._

"Jac?" Serena said, sounding genuinely worried this time. The lightning flashed through the thin cream curtains once more and Jac gave an involuntary sharp gasp of fright. "Jac," she said again as the thunder crashed through the room. "Jac. It's OK!"

Unable to speak, she pulled the duvet over her chin in an effort to forget what was out there. She considered retreating to the bathroom, where there was no window to see the lightning through, but she didn't want to have to explain herself to Serena Campbell, of all people. She'd never spoken of her fear of storms before. She always felt silly when she tried to imagine explaining it to another person.

She knew that she should have got over this after over thirty years, but truthfully, the thunder and lightning still scared her half to death.

The drumming of the rain intensified and Jac cursed the fact that they were on the fifth floor. She would have felt safer on the ground floor.

Serena turned her lamp on and leaned up on her elbow, and Jac saw the woman start to scrutinise her before she pulled the duvet completely over her head to drown out the thunder. She remembered doing the same as a five-year-old girl, terrified as the lightning struck the ground and the whole of the Earth's crust seemed to shake.

She couldn't help it. She didn't even care that Serena was watching her anymore; storms, to this day, still terrified her because she had been left all night in a tent in the middle of a thunderstorm as a young child.

A hand gently pulled the duvet from about her head and when she opened her eyes, only just realising she had them tightly shut, Serena was standing over her. "You're not even kidding, are you?" she asked gently.

"Does it _look_ like I'm kidding?!" Jac snapped. "Sorry," she added quietly at the unimpressed look on Serena's face.

"Let's just be thankful you haven't got the bed near the window then," she smiled gently as she tried to make a joke and diffuse this situation. She knelt down beside Jac, and the lightning struck again, making Jac force back the frightened whimper it evoked in her. Instead she instinctively covered her womb with her hand, protecting her child from the horror of the British weather. She felt like a silly child in front of Serena, but she could do nothing to stop it.

She jumped slightly when, although she had expected it, a crash of thunder sounded. "It's OK," Serena said, and Jac was surprised to hear a maternal quality to the older woman's tone. "Why are you scared of thunder and lightning, Jac?" she asked.

Although initially suspicious of her – everyone always was suspicious of Serena – Jac could tell her care was real. Her face was soft; nothing like what it was when she argued with Hanssen or told the juniors off. Jac pulled the duvet up around her face again and tried to pretend the rain wasn't slamming against the window and the wind wasn't howling outside.

"When I was five," Jac said in a low whisper. "When I was five, I was left outside, on my own, in a tent, in the middle of a storm."

Serena looked slightly horrified. "And your mother allowed that?"

"My mother was the one who locked the door," Jac gave a bitter laugh, recalling how little care her mother had shown her daughter, even as a small child. "It was only the back garden but I was terrified," she admitted, and she felt a little ashamed in doing so.

"You were five years old," Serena answered, pushing Jac's hair from her face. The room flashed again. "Of course you were terrified! I'd be more worried if you hadn't been scared."

Feeling a little less silly, Jac decided she might as well tell the whole story of that night. "The lightning hit the ground somewhere near the tent. The whole ground shook. It was like an earthquake. And a tree fell right outside the tent," she recalled, hearing that deafening crash again as the tree had fallen, skimming the tent as it collapsed.

"Oh, God," Serena sighed. The thunder swept through the room and this time Jac good not hold in the fear. Serena sighed and ordered her, "Move over a bit." Jac raised an eyebrow at her so she insisted, "Just do it." Reluctantly she obeyed, moving over a little bit as Serena climbed onto the bed, sitting on top of the duvet.

"What are you doing?" Jac asked curiously. She had never seen this side to Serena. She had only ever seen the harsh and determined version of her. This Serena was unknown to Jac and, against her better judgement, she trusted her. Then Jac remembered Serena was a mother herself and realised why Paula's actions had disgusted her.

"What your mother should have done when you were five," Serena replied. "There's nothing to be scared of. You're in a well-built hotel, and nothing's going to happen to you. I won't let it, OK?"

Jac could feel Serena's warmth next to her and felt slightly safer; she tried to move closer without Serena noticing, but the smile on her face told Jac she had failed miserably. She felt an arm around her shoulders and jumped as the thunder sounded a bit like gunfire outside. "Just go to sleep. When you wake up in the morning, it'll all be over."

She closed her eyes and tried to do what she was told but she couldn't help but look to see if the lightning was flashing; it was harder to see in the now lit room.

After a little while, she let herself relax, trusting that Serena would not allow anything to happen to her. "You know, it was meant to be like a little camping trip to the back garden. The weather was fine to begin with but then it started to rain and I went to the door," she remembered. "I knocked and knocked but Mum didn't answer. I was soaked to the skin when I gave up and went back to the tent."

Serena said, "Your mum sounds like a right horror."

"She is," Jac agreed. "I'll probably be just as bad," she added with a sigh, revealing one of her darkest fears about having a child.

"You won't," Serena contradicted her. "You'll be a good mum. I can tell." She squeezed Jac's shoulders lightly and said, "Now go to sleep. You'll need it if you're going to refrain from killing Henrik and Michael in the car tomorrow."

Jac laughed, her eyes closed and said, "Goodnight." Almost unconsciously, she pulled herself closer to Serena, who, in that moment, was the object of safety for her.

"Goodnight, Jac," Serena softly answered her. She felt her lean down to kiss her hair and realised she would not go back to bed until Jac was asleep, so she tried to feign sleep so Serena could let herself go back to bed, but she wasn't awake to feel Serena leave her. When she fell asleep, Serena was still next to her, keeping her safe from the storm raging outside.

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**Hope this is OK!  
Please feel free to review and tell me what you think!  
Sarah x**


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